Valentine's Day 2020

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• Valentine's Day is the second most popular day of the year for sending cards. Christmas is the first most popular..

• Worldwide, over 50 million roses are given for Valentine's Day each year.

• About 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged each year.

• Cupid is said to be the symbol of valentines. Cupid is the son of Venus. Venus is the Roman god of love and beauty.

• Red rose is a favorite flower of Venus. For this reason, red rose is also the symbol of Valentine’s Day.

• The heart is associated with Valentine’s Day as it is considered the source of all human emotions.

• Girls of medieval times ate bizarre foods on St. Valentine's Day to make them dream of their future husband.

• In order of popularity, Valentine's Day cards are given to teachers, children, mothers, wives, sweethearts and pets.

• Richard Cadbury invented the first Valentine’s Day candy box in the late 1800s.

• 220,000 is the average number of wedding proposals on Valentine's Day each year.

• In 1537, England's King Henry VII officially declared Feb. 14 the holiday of St. Valentine's Day.

• More than 35 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold for Valentine's Day.

• In Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, it is said that they lived in Verona Italy. Every year thousands of Valentine’s Day cards at sent to Verona addressed to Juliet.

• At least 9 million people buy their pets a gift on Valentine`s Day.

• The oldest known Valentine’s Day card is on display at the British Museum in London. It’s dates back to the 1400’s.

• By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes.

• Pope Gelasius declared February 14, St. Valentine’s Day around 498 A.D.

All this trivia came from here.

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The origins of the poem may be traced at least as far back as to the following lines written in 1590 by Sir Edmund Spenser from his epic The Faerie Queene (Book Three, Canto 6, Stanza 6).

It was upon a Sommers shynie day,

When Titan faire his beames did display,

In a fresh fountaine, farre from all mens vew,

She bath'd her brest, the boyling heat t'allay;

She bath'd with roses red, and violets blew,

And all the sweetest flowres, that in the forrest grew.

A nursery rhyme significantly closer to the modern cliché Valentine's Day poem can be found in Gammer Gurton's Garland, a 1784 collection of English nursery rhymes:

The rose is red, the violet's blue,

The honey's sweet, and so are you.

Thou are my love and I am thine;

I drew thee to my Valentine:

The lot was cast and then I drew,

And Fortune said it shou'd be you.

(This information can be viewed on Wikipedia)

 Bobby Vinton sang a song on this poem here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuyuFJeNoxI

_Elsa_

Today’s theme continues from yesterday’s theme about the poem “Roses are red, Violets are blue….”. But now let’s turn our attention to the goofy interpretations of the poem. Below are a few that I found on Google. Please feel free to find more and add them here. 

_____________________

Roses are red,

Violets are blue.

Some poems rhyme,

This one doesn’t.

 _____________________

Roses are red,

But violets aren’t blue,

They’re purple, you dope,

Now go get a clue.

 _____________________

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Sugar is sweet,

And so are you.

The roses have wilted,

The violets are dead,

The sugar bowl is empty,

And so is your head.

 _____________________

Roses are red,

Facebook is blue.

No mutual friends,

Who in the world are you?

_____________________

_Elsa_